The disclosure relates to the field of telephony communications, and more particularly to consolidating international short message service messages destined to multiple recipients.
Short message service (SMS) communications are short text messages sent between two communication devices, at least one of which is often a mobile communication device. SMS text messages can be limited to one hundred and sixty characters in length. It is common, however for SMS messages to be sent that are only a few characters in length, such as common in acknowledgements and/or greetings (e.g., “hi”, “ok”). Some service plans permit an unlimited number of SMS messages to be conveyed domestically, while others charge an amount per message conveyed. When SMS messages are conveyed internationally, significant costs and inefficiencies arise.
As such, international SMS messaging is increasingly becoming a significant topic for network operators and other mobile industry stakeholders (e.g., consumers). For many years the volumes of international SMS have been relatively low in comparison to domestic messaging. Now, however, with consumer and corporate behavior increasingly driving international communications, international SMS volume is becoming gradually more important. One by-product of this increasing focus on the international SMS communication market has been the introduction of a new set of inter-operator costs that threaten to significantly impact the price of international SMS and thus realign the economics of the market.
Termination, or interworking, fees for international SMS can vary widely from operator to operator and from country to country. In one instance, the impact of termination rates on the cost of international SMS is clear in markets where they have been introduced, generally increasing the cost per SMS by a factor of two or three. This impact is most noticeable when SMS messages are relatively short (e.g., less than a few characters in length), costing operators the same amount to deliver a “short” message versus a “long” message. A solution is needed to address the costly and inefficient nature of international SMS.